Computer Simulation: A Hybrid Model for Traffic Signal Optimisation

With the increasing number of vehicles in use in our daily life and the rise of traffic congestion problems, many methods and models have been developed for real time optimisation of traffic lights. Nevertheless, most methods which consider real time physical queue sizes of vehicles waiting for green lights overestimate the optimal cycle length for such real traffic control. This paper deals with the development of a generic hybrid model describing both physical traffic flows and control of signalised intersections. The firing times assigned to the transitions of the control part are considered dynamic and are calculated by a simplified optimisation method. This method is based on splitting green times proportionally to the predicted queue sizes through input links for each new cycle time. The proposed model can be easily translated into a control code for implementation in a real time control system.